Patricia Platt shared a wonderful account of change in their unschooling on the Always Learning list on August 29, 2011:
Thanks to what I learned from the blogs, presentations, and books of experienced unschoolers, I set out monkey platters of fresh food for my son and his friends while they gamed. I talked to my son about his gaming whenever I could. I found videos about Notch and Mojang (see http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2pp/minecraft-the-story-of-mojang). I bought him a Minecraft creeper t-shirt (http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/kids/e76a/?cpg=froogle), which he wore every day for two weeks straight. I watched tutorials on YouTube with him. My husband and I helped my son download mods and get his own Minecraft server. When he got into the "Planes" mod and started to fly the Fokker Dr. 1 airplane, we rented the movie "The Red Baron," and I read to him about Manfred von Richthofen and WWI. He created a WWI airbase for his planes in Minecraft.I also started noticing how much my son was learning by playing Minecraft. One day I noticed that he can now type as fast as I can (learned from chatting online). He had just recently turned nine. He has also learned how to spell and punctuate, to write polite and assertive emails (e.g., to request help from the server hosts, friends, or minecraftforum.net), to download and store files on a computer, to install mods on Macs and PCs, to create Minecraft "skins" using a pixel art editor, and to create really cool virtual structures and games within the game. Yesterday, he showed me that he'd created an agenda for himself in Minecraft. :) He's even learned important life lessons, such as how to stand up for what's right, even when it means admitting that someone he thought was a friend was not really a friend (all related to dealing with a compulsive griefer). He has learned all this and much more through Minecraft play, while deepening friendships and having a lot of fun.
Still, I missed feeling close with my son. So finally, last month, I finally got my own Minecraft account and started building with him, side-by-side. It has been so great! We're closer than we've ever been. I'm having a lot of fun. One of his friends' parents told me she'd heard I was a really good builder. I swelled with pride. :) But the best part is that now my son really sees me as a true friend who has embraced his passions. (And now sometimes when my husband or I have to run an errand, he asks to go with us.)
Sooo, my advice is to embrace Minecraft and be grateful that your child has an interest in this truly amazing and limitless game! My son has learned so much from playing it. So have I! I have to admit that my husband and I still miss traveling as a family, though. So, this year we've decided to take our family vacation by traveling to Minecon, a huge Minecraft convention. It will be held in Las Vegas on November 18-19, 2011. We can't wait! Check out minecraftforum.net if you're interested!
The account above is most of this original post: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlwaysLearning/message/62576
Hi Sandra,
You were speaking of Minecraft art, and I thought of this one our son, Ethan, made for us this past anniversary (our tenth). Ethan was so excited to share this with us in the morning when we all awoke. He even put a few tamed wolves, sitting at the end on the right, waiting for us.
We each have our own characters on our own laptops, so we all joined and visited his wonderful gift together. The pictures show what his creation looks like during the day, and at night. It was so great!
Kindly,
Karen James
Kristiva Stack wrote:
We are taking our two children to 'Minecon' also. It's going to be quite an event for our family!I was also very prejudice and fearful when my son (12) first started spending lots of time playing (FPS) games on the xbox and minecraft on the computer. Long story short, I realized that everytime I rejected his interests I was missing an opportunity to connect with him. And connection became my priority. Even before I understood anything about video games besides my shallow observations and judgements. As soon as I shifted to respect, a whole new world opened for me. I also learned some amazing things about my son.
Another account of Learning from Minecraft Video Games
Being with your child, in the present
